The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-02-03

and went along with him. could swear like
an cid salt. could gamble in every style of
gambling. | knew oil the wickedness
thero was at that tirno abroad. One
day my father cleared everybody out of the
cabin except myself, and locked the doors.
He said David what are you going to do?
What arc you going to bog 'Well,' said,
father, am going to follow the sea- Follow
the sea! and be a poor, miserable, drunken
sailor, kicked and cuffed about the world
and die of q fever in q foreign hospital? oh,
no. | said, father, / will not be that; will
tread the quarter deck and command, as you
do No, David my father said; no,
David, person that has your principles and
your bad habits win never tread the quarter
deck or command My father went out and
shut the door after him, and I said then: I
viii change I will never swear again, will
never drink again, l viii never gamble
again. And, gentlemen, by the help Of God,
l have kept those three vows to this time |
soon after that became Christian, and that
decided my fate for tinlc and for eternity"
Another captive of this great Christian de-
lusion! There goes Saul Of Tarsus Oh horse
back at full gallop Where is he going? To
destroy Christians. He wants no better play
spell than to stand and watch the hats and
coats of the murderers who are masSacring
Gods children. There goes the same man.
This time he is afoot Where is ne going
nova Going ON the road to Ostia to die for
Christ They tried to whip it out of him,
they tried to scare it out of him, they
thought they would give him enough of it by
putting him into a windowless dungeon, and
keeping him ON small diet, and denying him
a cloak, and condemning him as criminal,
and bowling at him through the street; but
they could not freeze it out of him, and they
could not sweat it out of him, and they could
| not pound it out of him, SO they tried the
surgery of the sword, and one summer day in
&c he was decaptated. Perhaps the mightiest
| intellect of the 5000 years of the worlds ex-
| istence hoodwinked, cheated, cajoled, duped
| by the Christian religion. Ah! that is the
remarkable thing about this delusion of
| Christianity, it overpowers the strongest
intellects. Gather the critics, secular and
| religious, of this century together and put
| vote to them as to which is the great
est book ever written, and by large
majority they will say paradise Lost" Who
| wrote paradise Lost" One of the fools who
believed I'm this Bible, John Milton. Benja-
min Franklin surrendered to this delusion, if
| you may Judge from the letter that he wrote
to Thomas Paine, begging him to destroy
let it go into type, and writing afterward, in
| his old days: "Of this Jesus of Nazareth
/ have to say that the system of morals He
\ left and the religion he has given us are the
I best things the world has ever seen or is
likely to see." Patrick Henry, the electric
champion of liberty, enslaved by this delu-
sion, so that he says: "The book worth all
other books put together is the Bible" Ben
jamin Rush, the leading Psychologist and an
atomist Of his day, the great medical scientist
what did he say? "The only true and per-
| feet religion is Christianity" Isaac Newton,
the leading philosopher of his time-what did
he say? That man surrendering to
this delusion Of the Christian re-
ligion, crying out: "The sublimest
philosophy on earth is the phil
osophy of the Gospel" David Brewster, at
the pronunciation Of whose name every
scientist the world over bows his head,
David Brewster saying: 20, this religion
has been a great light to me, very
great light all my days" President Theirs,
the great French statesman, acknowl
edging that he prayed when he said. u
invoke the Lord God in whom am glad &c
believe" David Livingstone, able to conquer
the lion, able to conquer the panther, able tc
conquer the savage, yet conquered by this
delusion, this hallucination, this great swindle
of the ages, SO when they find him dead they
find him on his knees William E. Gladstone
the strongest intellect in England to-day
unable to resist this chimera, this fallacy
this delusion of the Christian religion, goes tc
the house of God every Sabbath and often
at the invitation of the rector, reads the
prayers to the people. o, if those mighty in
tellects are overborne by this delusion, wha
chance is there for you and for me?
Beside that, l have noticed that first ratt
infidels cannot be depended on for steadfast
ness in the proclamation of their sentiments
Goethe, leading skeptic, was so wrough
upon by this Christianity that in weak mo
ment he cried out: "My belief in the Bibl
has saved me in my literary and moral life
Rousseau, one of the most eloquent cham
pions of infdelity, spending his whole lif
warning against Christianity, cries out: 9TH
majesty of the Scriptures amazes me-" Alta
mont, the notorious infidel. one would thinl
he would have been safe against this delusiol
of the Christian religion. Oh, no. Afte
talking against Christianity all his days, il
his last hours he cried out: ooh, Thou bias
phemed but most indulgent Lord God, hel
itself is refuge, if it hide me from TIL,
frown!" Voltaire, the most talente,
infidel the world ever saw, writing 25
publications, and the most of them spite
full against Christianity, himself tn
most notorious libertine of the century,
one would have thought he could have beel
J depended upon for steadfastness In the advo
cacy of infidelity and in the war against thi
terrible chimera, this delusion of the Gospel
But 10; in his last hour he asks for Christian
burial, and asks that they give him the sacra
ment of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why, yol
cannot depend upon these first rate infidels-
you cannot depend upon their power to resis
this great delusion of Christianity. Thoma
Paine, the god of modern skeptics, his birth
day celebrated in New York and Boston wit
great onthusiasm-Thomas Paine, the para
gon of Biblo haters: Thomas Paine, abou
: whom his brother intldel William Carve
wrote, il letter which l have at my houst
, saying that he drank quart of rum da
and was too mean and too dishonest to pa
for it; Thomas Paine, the adored of modern IL
I fidelity; Thomas Paine, who stole onothe
? mans vito in England and brought her t
this land; Thomas Paine, who was SO squali
| and so loathsome and SO drunken and S
, prohigate and SO beastlY in his habits soms
times picked out of tho ditch, sometimes t
filthy to be picked out; Thomas Paine-on
would have thought that he could have bee
depended Oil for steadfastness against th
p GREAT deluson But no. In his dying hou
r he begs the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.
. Powerful deluson, all conquering delusiol
earthquaking deiusion of tho Christian II
4 ligion Yea, it goes on, it is SO impertinen
and it is so overbearing, this chimera of IL
| gospel, that having conquered the great pic
, ure galleries of the world, the old master
and the young masters. as ] showed in
2 former sermon, it is not satisfied until 1t III
: conquered the music of the world. Look ovt
4 tho programme of that magnificent musici
: festival q few years ago in New York and 81
0 what were tho great performances, and lear
that the greatest Of all the subjects were reli;
ious subjects. What was it one night whe
: three thousand voices were accompanied wit
= q vast number of Instruments "israel
1 Egypt" Yes, Beethoven deluded until he wro
|. the high mass in D major. Haydn deluded wit
: this religion until he wrote the Creation
Handel deluded until he wrote the oratori